New York—Fashion designers have a dream—to see their collections on the runway. For 13 fashion design students and graduates of The Art Institute of New York City, that dream will become reality at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. They’ll debut their Spring/Summer 2015 collections in front of an international audience of fashion professionals and journalists. The show will take place on Sept. 9, at 8 p.m. at Lincoln Center.

The Art Institutes system of schools’ partnership with Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is now in its third season and serves as a career-starting platform for these designers who’ve come to The Art Institute of New York City from as far away as Iran and Cameroon. Their collections are inspired by everything from Ancient Egypt to African tribes. The designs represent their years of work studying fashion design, as well as the years of creative passion they’ve put into their pursuit of a fashion career.

“It’s exciting to see the designers’ process as they move from concept to design to actual fabrication—all of which they learn as students at The Art Institute of New York City,” said Timothy Moscato, chief operating officer of The Art Institutes. “We’re proud of their work and are anxious to see where this opportunity takes them.”

The students and graduates who were chosen to debut their collections at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week combined excitement and pressure to create collections that would catch the eye of a global audience. For designer Kibonen Nfi, a current student pursuing an Associate of Applied Science in Fashion Design at The Art Institute of New York City, making a statement at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week means more than showing off her collection, it’s an opportunity to inspire designers in her native Africa and to put the spotlight on Cameroon’s low standard of living. “I’m glad I am in a position where I can inspire the younger generation in my home country and at the same time target a more global market,” she said.

For more information about the students and graduates showing at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, please visit www.artinstitutes.edu/mbfw or follow the hashtag #AiMBFW.